Names

What is in a name?  A name is a valuable asset, it's quite possibly one of the first labels a person is given!  I thought of this as I was writing for my church's blog (this would have been posted there first, however their website wouldn't let me enter it...) and noticed that my name was misspelled!  My name is not a unique name, however it is unique enough for it to be mispronounced by nearly every person I've ever met and don't get me started about spelling!  My name is Alicia (A-lee-sha), not hard at all, but I have been called A-lee-c-a, Al-ica, Allison (don't know why on that one!) and even A-lish-a (probably more than that); and it's been misspelled so many different ways that I can't even remember them all...for me to find my name on the bicycle nameplates they make for kids was a miracle when I was a kid!

What struck me though was just how much my identity rested in the correct spelling of my name...spelled wrong and they mean a different person, not me.  It was a huge issue for me...bigger than I had realized at the moment.

Names are big for God too.  He renamed Abram to Abraham to increase Abraham's faith.  I know many who have changed their names because God had told them too, they are no longer the old person and a name change proves that fact.  For me, I am quite happy with my name...it comes from a form of Alice, my grandmother of whom I resemble very much (from what I've been told).  It means "honest" (I've always thought it meant "truth", yet honest is wonderful as well ;-) ).  For me, to have it misspelled means that the meaning of it could change as well.

This is so not true.  I am who God created me to be, whether or not my name is spelled right!  If anything the misspelling caused me to evaluate, ponder, and enjoy my comfort in Him!